VietNamNet Bridge – There are two remarkable things occurring in the mobile phone market: the rivalry among CDMA service providers, and the rivalry among telecommunications equipment suppliers.

‘Special care’ for the rivalry

Hanoi Telecom CDMA services are being provided on a trial basis in three big cities, Hanoi, HCM City and Da Nang. Being the newcomer in the market, Hanoi Telecom is trying to win a market share by launching a big promotion programme, which will last until the end of December. Hanoi Telecom (HT) network users can have 92 free minutes for calls, 92 free messages per day to subscribers of the same network, and 92 free minutes per month for calls to subscribers of other networks.

However, analysts said that HT will not find it so easy to control the market, as S-fone, its biggest rival, on November 29 launched a new package product, ‘Smile’, which offers similar preferences. S-Fone users can enjoy 60 minutes of free calls within the same network and 50% reductions for calls to subscribers of other networks which are made between midnight and 4 pm every day.

In fact, the preferences offered by S-Fone are less attractive than HT’s; however, S-Fone has the advantage of being a well-known name in the market, while HT remains the late comer. In addition, with S-phone having 1mil subscribers, the total value of free calls within the S-Fone network will be much higher than that within HT’s.

The fierce competition between S-Fone and HT, two of the existing three CDMA service providers, has just kicked off. In fact, S-Fone considered HT a redoubtable rival even when HT was just preparing to join the market. It took S-Fone many efforts to launch the new services, VoD, MoD and Mobile Internet, before HT did, though the services cannot bring fat profit.

Analysts said that it would be wiser for S-Fone to compete with other CDMA service providers than fighting with VinaPhone, MobiFone or Viettel Mobile, which have become very big names in the market.

New powerful equipment providers emerging

Since the mobile phone smuggling and tax evasion case of Dong Nam Company, the once biggest phone supplier in the market, was discovered, FPT (the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology) has seized the opportunity to become the biggest wholesale supplier of mobile phones in Vietnam.

However, the domination of FPT in the market has been threatened by another telecommunications equipment provider, VM.

The fact that VM officially joined the market to distribute telecommunications equipment has surprised many people. Several years ago, MobiFone had to give up the distribution of equipment to focus on network development. Meanwhile, Ho Hong Son, Managing Director of S-Fone, also said that it would be a burden on CDMA service providers if they were to undertake one more work – equipment sales.

However, experts said that VM has every reason to do that. As a service provider, it will have more opportunity to sell more phones and equipment to customers, including VM network clients.

There is another equipment supplier that may be considered a redoubtable rival to FPT, the Nettra chain, specialising in mobile phones. Several hundred Nettra distribution points have been set up just in the last several months, mostly in Hanoi and HCM City.

(Source: Lao dong)